So I've recently swapped over from an Ipod Touch 3 to a Samsung Galaxy Player 5. There are things I love and things I hate about my new device, since I used my Ipod touch primarily as a smartphone whenever it was on wifi. Here are some of my observations and things I've found along the way that might help people make the switch:

~~ VOIP Calling ~~
I've tried several of the VOIP apps (gtalk, grooveip, etc) and they all share a common problem: there is a large delay on the line. When I had my ipod touch, I used to use an app called Talkatone and it worked beautifully with no delay whatsoever. Turns out, you can get it on android (although not through the market). Had to really dig to find this one, but boy is it worth it!The app is incredible and works out of the box with no configuration. No delay at all, no echo, each party can hear the other without a problem. And it's free (for now)!

RECOMMENDATION: Talkatone (google: "talkatone apk" and find the link to the official site. Sry I can't post the link )

~~ Texting ~~
Use the official google voice app for now and throw a widget on your home screen. I got so spoiled by bitesms/google voice integration on my ipod, but for now this is about as good as it gets. Eventually, chompsms or some competitor will integrate google voice so you can quick-reply to texts without leaving the app you're in. They say it's in the works, so keep your fingers crossed!

RECOMMENDATION: Google Voice App (market)

~~ Calendar ~~
Using lockinfo on my ipod really spoiled me as far as keeping track of my upcoming events goes, but android gives us a similarly simple solution in the form of Pure Grid Calendar Widget. Toss a 4x4 XL widget on your homescreen and have fun never opening your calendar app again

RECOMMENDATION: Pure Grid Calendar Widget (market)

~~ Music: Desktop Syncing ~~
Coming off of itunes is tough, as I'm sure you all know. I decided to use windows media player on my desktop to sync my music, since it allows easy syncing to external SD (important, since I have more than 8GB of music) and is easy to use, despite being ugly and clunky. To listen to music on my computer, I'll be using Zune (soooo much better than itunes!), since playlists and ratings should sync right over to windows media player and therefore, my android. Still playing around with this, though. Will update as time goes on.

RECOMMENDATION: ?

~~ Music: Your device ~~
If the stock music player had a widget that worked, I would have used that, but since it didn't and there seem to be no good widgets for it in the market, I swapped over to PlayerPro. So far so good, but still don't have much experience with this, so will update over time.

RECOMMENDATION: ?

~~ Browser ~~
Currently I'm using the stock browser, since it is relatively zippy and works with flash player. Tried opera mini, and love the speed, but compatibility is shaky. Still not sold on this one.

RECOMMENDATION: ?

~~ File Explorer ~~
Use ES File Explorer. Don't ask questions. Just do it. When/if you decide to root, it gets better. Before you root, it lets you change file extensions (stock does not). It's also free with no ads.

RECOMMENDATION: ES File Explorer (market)

~~ Keyboard ~~
I'm personally really liking Swype, but it does take up a lot of memory and the keys are very small in portrait when typing things you can't swype (usernames, passwords, email addresses, slang, etc). Not sold on this, but definitely better than stock.

RECOMMENDATION: Swype ?

If you guys can think of anything I've missed as far as decisions about android you have/had to make, please let me know so I can update this. Still relatively new to android. Thanks!

For texting, I use textPlus. It works pretty well. If you get a text while in another app, you can reply without leaving it. For the browser, definitely try Dolphin Browser HD. It works really well. For music, I use Google Music to stream from the cloud if I want to play something that's not on my player at the moment, but my main player is RockBox w/ slight modifications to dfkt's Minimum theme.

~~ Music Desktop syncing ~~
Even though I use Macs, and used iTunes (before the Xiph plugin died), I never used an iPod. I used an iAudio G3 as my personal audio device and never desired to sync it. It's easy enough to drag the iTunes music directory folder (or just the Artist folders within) over to mass-storage audio devices that I just don't see any advantage to syncing it.

RECOMMENDATION: Drag-n-drop your music directory over to the SGP. The transfer rate shouldn't be any slower than a sync process. As you get new music onto your main computer, drag over the Artist folders to the SGP.

I find GrooveIP works pretty good, but will try Talkatone, thanks! Texting GV for sure.
edit: Trying Talkatone, not nearly as good UI as GrooveIP (no access to Google favorites, no contact pix), does seem to make calls fine. Speakerphone crashes app. Sticking with GrooveIP for now, until they officially release this thing.

I had Boat Mini as my browser for a year on my phone, but jus switched to Dolphin HD on my 5.0, very nice, especially the RSS section (Webzine). I have now eliminated Pulse because of it.

I really like the built in calendar, use Smooth Calendar Widget with it.

FX File EXplorer is great unrooted, but since I have File Expert on my phone, I'm using it on my 5.0, love this theme:http://www.appbrain.com/app/file-exp...lexpert.theme7 My ONLY issue with it is it does allow reverse sorting (by date ends up newest last, which sux), but favorites pretty much solved that.

Thanks for recommending the alpha (beta?) version of Talkatone. I tried it out after downloading it to my computer, uploading to Dropbox, then installing it from there on to my device. It works much better than GrooveIP with this particular device. I've never gotten Groove to work well at all, even after tinkering with every setting imaginable. I know some people have had luck with Groove, but not me. But Talkatone? No problems. It's not quite as good as a landline, but it has no stutter or echo at all and I can hear people and they can hear me. I recommend it highly as an option for VOIP for the 5.0, even if it's not even the final released version.

I also second the recommendation for Dolphin browser. It works like a charm in desktop view. I keep it set on desktop, and use Boat Browser when I want to view a site in mobile view, just so I don't have to tinker with changing the desktop setting for Dolphin (though Dolphin does both desktop and mobile).

Good call using dolphin. I like that you can open YouTube in the app rather than the browser. And not thrilled about using proplayer. Doesnt get sync'd windows media player playlists. Also still having car stereo USB hookup problems. Definitely worse than my iPod in that respect.

tcat, have you used LauncherPro at all? I use it because of The DarkSide's proclaiming of its wonders and medion as well, so I grabbed that and was satisfied with it. If you have used Go Launcher and LauncherPro by chance, could you throw a little contrast of features our way?

I'll try Talkatone a bit more, just needs some refinement on contacts. Like I said I don't talk much, so I'm not sure how good GrooveIP really works. Was pretty good on my Optimus-V, just not enough calls to say which I like better.

Not tried LP, just using GO for the past year and haven't found anything I don't like about it. Smooth and fast...

Quote:

Originally Posted by galaxyfaraway

Thanks for recommending the alpha (beta?) version of Talkatone. I tried it out after downloading it to my computer, uploading to Dropbox, then installing it from there on to my device. It works much better than GrooveIP with this particular device. I've never gotten Groove to work well at all, even after tinkering with every setting imaginable. I know some people have had luck with Groove, but not me. But Talkatone? No problems. It's not quite as good as a landline, but it has no stutter or echo at all and I can hear people and they can hear me. I recommend it highly as an option for VOIP for the 5.0, even if it's not even the final released version.

I also second the recommendation for Dolphin browser. It works like a charm in desktop view. I keep it set on desktop, and use Boat Browser when I want to view a site in mobile view, just so I don't have to tinker with changing the desktop setting for Dolphin (though Dolphin does both desktop and mobile).

I tried that Talkatone alpha 3 on my 4.0 and It mutes the sound everytime I answer it or dial out and the device bogs down and becomes almost completely unresponsive.

Talkatone works well on my 5.0. It seems to deliver the best performance when using the headset rather than the earpiece and microphone on the device, though. I've had no luck at all with Groove IP, even after changing settings the way others have recommended to optimize it for the device, but Talkatone has been at least decent the few times I've tried it. Maybe it varies depending on a person's WiFi (router, speed, etc.), because I've read other people having much better luck with Groove than I have, and perhaps the performance varies for Talkatone for whatever various reasons as well.

well i'm blaming it on talkatone since its still only an alpha build, i'll check it out again once they get further along, but it was good to hear about it because I have a friend who has an iphone but no service (plus cell reception just doesn't exist inside the old metal mobile home she rents, service is fine outside but nothing inside) so I was at least able to point her in a direction so she would be able to use it for more then just texting.